Fire box and grate.



Z. P. JONES.

FIRE BOX AND GBATE.

APPLICATION FILED mm: 19, 1911.

Patented May 28, 1912.

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Z. P. JONES.

FIRE BOX AND GBATE.

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1,027,610. I Patented May 2 1912.

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NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ZAGHARIAH 1*. onas, or soorrsvm n, VIRGINIA.-

FIBE BOX AND GRATE.

. Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 28, 1912.

Application filed June 19, 1911. Serial N o. 634,033.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ZAo ARiAH F. JONES,

a citizen of the United States, residing at- Scottsville, in the county'of Albemarle and; State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire Boxes and Grates; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same. I

This invention relates to the class of stoves and furnaces, and more especially to sectional fire-pots; and the object of the same is to produce a sectional fire pot and grate capable of insertion into the shell andbase of upright stoves including many of the types now on the market and in common use, and which when so inserted will suspend the weight of the live coals low within the stove structure and out of contact with its walls,

afford easy access to the fire for the air, permit raking by anordinary poker'with but little if any noise, and provide an oscillating grate by means of which the fire can be shaken whenever desired and dumped when it becomes necessary. All these objects are carried out by the construction hereinafter more fully described 30 and claimed, and as shown the drawings wherein Figure 1 is a central-vertical section of j the preferred" form of my device. Figs. 2 .and 3 are sections on" the. lines 2-2 and 3-3 respectively of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a plan view of one of the ring members, and Fig. 5 is a side elevationthereof. Fig. 6 is a reduced bottom plan view of the grate and its latch. F if; 7 .is'a fragmentary sectional view showing the use of the .devicesfor suspending the supportingmember within a flaring shell; andfFig. 8 is asimilar view of one of the legs by which this supporting member may be sustained within a stove and entirely out of contact with its shell.

In the drawings the letter B designates the conventional form or the base of an ordinary stove, here illustrated as substan 1 tially rectangular. andflhaving a circular opening 0 in its top, and its front end will be closed by a door through which access may behad to the ash pit as usual. The

.letter S designates the shell of the stove, here indicated as substantially cylindrical i ,base around the opening therein, al-

in Fig. l and as restingupon the top of the though in Fig. 7 theshell S is shown as flaring upward, and it will be understood.

that it could be of almostany shape within limits as it forms no essential feature of the present invention. I

The supporting ring 1 of my improved device is scalloped around its outer edge as at 2 so as to produce fingers 3 which are sufficiently long to. pass over and rest upon the inner edge of the base around its opening, whereby this sectional member is supported therefrom and centered therein and air may pass upward through said opening 0 and scallops 2 and inside the shell S. Some of the fingers are provided with eyes 4, and Fig. 7 shows how a bracket 5 having a slot 6 may be bolted at 7 into one of these eyes so that its outwardly inclined-foot 8 will rest against the side of a shell S which flares upward rather than is cylindrical as in Fig. 1. Fig. 8 shows also how legs 9 could be bolted beneath the perforated fingers in the same manner when the shape of the shell is such that no type of bracket or casting supplied with this invention could be employed to hold the supporting member therein. I wish to emphasize the fact that by preference this supporting member is disposed within the ordinary stove on a line between its base and its body, or about where the grate ordinarily occurs,

and it will be seen from the description be- 7 low that by my present invention the grate hangs somewhat lower than the supporting member so that the size ofthe fire box is increased.

Taking through three of the fingers 3v (preferably twoat the. rear and one exactly in the center in front) are bolts 10, 10 which l are connected by a cross bar 11, and a single grate may be manipulated. Between these two perforations a bolt 17 is passed through the arm '14, and beneath its head which stands below this arm isengaged a latch plate 18 having in its body a key-hole slot 19 and a depending finger piece 20 at its front end. The construction is such that when the lip 13 rests upon the cross bar the slot 15 engages the lower end of the front bolt 12 which then stands in the narrow portion of the key-hole opening 19, and at this time a poker may be inserted in the eye 16 at the front end of the shaker arm or handle and the latter manipulated laterally, the latch plate turning upon the bolt 17 as a pivot and swinging from side to side below said arm 1a. hen it is desired to remove the grate or to drop the front end of the same in order to dump the fire, the latch plate is drawn forward by passing a finger under the finger piece 20 and slipping the latch plate bodily on the bolt 17 this brings the large end of the key-hole opening 19 over the head of the bolt 12 and into register with the transverse slot 15, after which the entire front end of the grate can be dropped, and later the whole grate can be drawn bodily forward off of its cross bar and removed from the base B. It is obvious that this manner of supporting the grate removably from the supporting member and permitting it to be shaken does not necessarily require any particular means for attaching the supporting member to the shell or base of the stove or mounting it upon its own legs.

\Vithout the use of the elements described below, the proper insertion within the base and shell of the members thus far described will build up a sectional fire pot composed of a supporting member sustained either upon the top of the base or by brackets within the shell or on its own legs, and a grate movably hung therefrom so that it may be agitated for shaking purposes or may be bodily removed for dumping purposes. In addition to flowing upward through the grate and between its bars as usual, the inflowing air finds ready entrance to the live coals through the annular space between the two members, which space may also be utilized by the operator when he desires to rake the fire with a poker and permit the ashes or clinkers to fall within the ash pit. If the device be mounted within a shell S, the air also finds a passage upward through the scallops 2 in the supporting member and around the live coals thus in suring proper combustion of the fuel.

An amplification of my idea consists in the employment of a third member, and in fact there may be several of these members all duplicates of each other and superimposed one upon another as indicated by the two such members shown in Fig. 1. Each comprises an annular body or ring 21 whose exterior circumference is about the same as that of the several fingers 3 around the supporting member, and it may be well to provide this ring with a series of lugs 22 on its periphery which are adapted to fit within the shell S if the latter be truly cylindrical and therefore center the member therein. Secured rigidly to and depending from the ring are a series of feet 23 whereby the first of these members is supported directly upon the supporting member above described, and subsequent members are supported upon each other in a manner which will be clear. The length of these feet is such that the ring members will be separated from each other and the lowermost ring member from the supporting member by a distance which about equals that between the supporting member and the grate, although the latter distance may be adjusted by setting the nuts by means of which the bolts 10 and 12 are held within the eyes 1 through the fingers 3. It is desirable that the feet be of sufficient length to holdthe ring members apart and above the supporting member so as to permit air to enter between these various members and pass into the live coals if the damper in the outlet flue of the stove be open, or permit air to pass upward within the shell and around the various members if said damper be closed and the fire is banked or its combustion is to be retarded.

Thus I have built up a sectional fire pot and grate adapted for insertion within the base and shell of stoves such as are now in common use and on the market, and which may even be inserted therein after the reg ular grate thereof has been removed.

The parts of this device are by preference made entirely of rough and cheap castings, excepting possibly the latch and the bolts, and they may be made in sizes so that the device can be adapted to stoves already in use.

Changes in the specific details of construction may be adopted without departing from the principle of the invention, and it is to be understood that all parts above described are not necessary in each structure.

WVhat is claimed as new is:

1. The combination with a ring-shaped supporting member, three bolts depending therefrom with the heads at their lower ends, and a cross bar connecting the two rearmost bolts; of a grate having a wide lip integral with its rear resting movably upon said cross bar and a shaker-arm projecting from its front and provided with a transverse slot loosely engaging the front bolt, and a latch loosely mounted beneath said arm and itself having a slot movably engaging said front bolt and crossing the other slot.

2. The combination with a ring-shaped supporting member, three bolts depending therefrom, and a cross bar connecting the two rearmost bolts; of a grate having a lip at its rear resting movably upon said cross bar and a shaker-arm projecting from its front and provided with a transverse slot loosely engaging the front bolt, a pivot through the arm forward of the slot therein,

and a latch having a longitudinal opening in its body sliding beneath said arm and over the pivot and bolt.

3. The combination with a ring-shaped supporting member, three bolts depending therefrom with the heads at their lower ends, and a cross bar connecting the two rearmost bolts; of a grate having a lip at its rear resting movably upon said cross bar and a shaker-arm projecting from its front and provided with a transverse slot adapted to loosely engage the front bolt, a pivot through the arm forward of the slot therein, and a latch beneath said arm and having a key-hole opening in its body sliding over the pivot and the head of the bolt, and

whose rear end is movably supported upon said cross bar and whose front end is movably supported by the front depending device within the stove base.

5. The combination. with the base of a stove having an opening in its top, a shell superimposed upon said base, an annular supporting member having scallops in its periphery and interposed fingers resting upon the base around theopening in the latter, depending devices hanging from this member through said opening, and a rin member disposed within and smaller than said shell and provided with radial lugs fitting within such shell and with depending feet resting upon said supporting member; of a cross bar connecting certain of the rearmost devices within the stove-base, a grate whose rear end is movably supportedcby said cross-bar and whose front end is transversely slotted to movably engage oneof the forward devices, and a latch pivotally connected with said front end of the grate and,

loosely engaging this device to permit the shaking of the grate.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

Witnesses:

L. O. HILTON, M. Bussros.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. i

ZACHARIAH F. JONES. I l 

